Winter Tires Installed – Bring On The Snow!

Normally, I don’t brother installing winter tires on my cars because I used to live in Richmond, which is flat as a pancake. Generally, all season tires will do just fine if you don’t drive much and stick to the main roads. Now that I live 300 meters above sea level on a heavily sloped mountainside in the Properties of West Vancouver, I had to give in and put four Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1 on the recently purchased Acura MDX. I purchased the MDX because I knew West Van gets a lot snow during the winter months and all wheel drive would be a huge advantage. However, Sarah insisted on installing winter tires as well.

Replacing the award winning Bridgestone Blizzak DM-Z3, the DM-V1 features Bridgestone’s proprietary Nano-Pro-Tech rubber compound and Multicell technology to disperse surface water and improve grip. A directional tread pattern and 3-D sipes enhance dry performance and continuous lug design and Center Multi-Z tread grooves in the DM-V1 increase traction in the snow and ice.

The new Blizzak has been on for only one day but I’m really impressed with the ride and handling. The tires are a bit louder than the all seasons that came with the MDX and the ride is a bit hasher, but overall, it’s amazing and you would swear they were stock all seasons if I didn’t tell you. I’m sure they’ll prove their worth when the snow falls this weekend. Here’s a video of the old Blizzak DM-Z3 on an AWD 300C.

Here’s a video comparing winter tires to all seasons and summer tires. Sarah said it’s a good thing I got the new winter tires installed because our driveway is five times longer and steeper than the driveway in the video.